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Monday, July 8, 2013

And Now A Word About Animal Crossing: New Leaf Nearly A Month After Its Release

And now, I want to talk a little bit about Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. The game came out nearly a month ago, and I want to talk a little bit, after a month or so has gone by, about what I like and don't like about the game.

Pros:

Superb sound design

A really robust engine for making tons and tons of Bells, the in-game currency

No DLC micro transactions (This is actually a good thing, folks)

The Island is a fabulous mechanic that works really well in the game

A robust selection of tools you can use

Fun stores

A way to sell your items EVEN WHEN NOOK'S IS CLOSED! This is a HUGE improvement over previous games, and

You don't have to jump through hoops to eithre donate items to the museum OR to have your fossils assessed! YEE HA!

Online and wireless connectivity features that actually make sense

Each animal in your town now has a custom house! You don't realize just how samey their houses were in previous games until you play this game.

Really cool features (like QR codes) that make sense in the context of the hardware features of the 3DS.

Cons:

Truly some of the most annoying moments in the entire game are when you have to sneak up to catch bugs. The sneaking mechanic is kind of a pain in the butt when you cannot even use the D-Pad to sneak in that respect, and even then you might catch the bugs you want 50% of the time because of the weird arc that the net swings in.

Another problem with the bugs in this game: Some of them are unbelievably annoying to listen to, like the cicadas (really I just want them to SHUT UP ALREADY)

The fishing is also a painful mechanic as well but it's a LOT more precise than using the bug catching net.